Every year on April 7th, we celebrate World Health Day, Sponsored by World Health Organization. This year, the topic is food safety awareness. Approximately 2 million people die every year globally due to unsafe foods. Children are the ones affected the most by food containing bad bacteria, parasites, or toxic chemicals. And if by luck they don’t die, there are more than 200 diseases that could surface based upon these unsafe foods. But let’s talk about some safe food practices to help us avoid intoxication.

When packaged food is sitting on the shelf at the supermarket for some time, there is a chance that bacteria can overgrow, especially the disease-causing ones. The FDA has approved spraying the meat with viruses (phage viruses) which destroy bacteria, and thus minimizing it’s overgrowth. Unfortunately, there’s no requirement to label this technique if is being used. It is important to know where your food is coming from. Some companies are more open about their food handling techniques than others. Another reason why you should find out where your food comes from is due to toxic chemicals contamination. For example, brown rice can be contaminated with arsenic. Unfortunately, many toxins, such as arsenic, are not destroyed by cooking.

But let’s go back to what you can do at home to prevent food poisoning or diseases. Since the digestive process starts in the mouth, oral diseases can also manifest from contaminated food. Once the processed food makes it to your refrigerator, here are a few things you can do to prevent food illnesses:

1. Hand washing before preparing any food and after handling the raw meat
2. Prevent cross contamination by using the same cutting board for raw meat and vegetables. One suggestion is to color coordinate your cutting boards.
3. Proper storage of raw meats in enclosed, separate containers, in the freezer or refrigerator
4. Do not leave cooked/raw food out of the refrigerator for more than two hours
5. Leftovers should be put in shallow containers for quick cooling and refrigeration as soon as possible
6. When you’re reheating food, make sure it is hot or even steamy (over a temperature of 329°F) to kill bacteria
7. Keep your refrigerator under 40°F, because this prevents virtually all bacteria from growing.

In great health,
Dr. Sanda

For information on nutritional evaluation or see which dental materials are toxic to your body through biocompatibility testing contact Dr. Sanda Moldovan to schedule a consultation.

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“How is it to do live surgery for the Doctors show? It is definitely a challenge.”

I remember my first show with them, about 3 years ago, when Dr. Sears, the pediatrician, host for the Doctors, had a wisdom tooth that he had forgotten about on the upper left side. Because it was hard for him to clean all the way in the back of the mouth, it got a cavity and was affected by periodontal disease, which caused him to lose bone around it. So Dr. Sears asked me if I would take out his wisdom tooth live on the show. We thought it would be a great way to educate everyone watching. I did live surgery before for the dental implant course I teach at UCLA, so I thought it would be similar….wrong!

Dr. Sears procedure was televised directly to the studio at Paramount where the show is being taped, so I had cameras around me. My assistant got really nervous and forgot to suction.

The field producer was adjusting my microphone on my blue coat and told me we had 7 minutes to take the tooth out. “Don’t take it out too fast, in 2 minutes, for example, but don’t take too long. Try to fit it into the 7 minutes. And, while your extracting it, educate us on why we should take out wisdom teeth, at what age, etc,etc…. Is that it!? I really felt the pressure on! What if I broke the root inside? It would take me 20 minutes to get it out. I tried not to think about it, and imagined how everything would go smoothly. And it did.

“It’s a boy!” I said right after I removed it, and everyone broke out laughing.

In great health,
Dr. Sanda

To discuss your upcoming surgery with an award-winning periodontist and nutritionist contact Dr. Sanda Moldovan to schedule a consultation.

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